WWW Wednesday: January 30, 2019

It is COLD here! But, I have my books (and a space heater) to keep me warm. Also, it is time for my favorite meme of them all….WWW Wednesday! Hosted by Sam at Taking on a World of Words, this is the answer to what we have all been reading. Please join in and put your links below or just add your books in the comments!

What Did I Finish Reading?

I finished Romancing His Rival by Jennifer Shirk right after posting last week’s WWW. It was cute, but I did not realize that it was the third in the series. I wondered why the beginning felt so hurried and abrupt – the author assumed I knew the backstory! It was a very light romance and short but cute.

I also finish Awakening Your Ikigai by Ken Mogi which is loved and highly recommend. It is also short but packed full of advice on how to live your life full of joy. The full review will be up on Friday for NonFiction Friday.

I tore through Thunderhead and if you enjoyed Scythe you will love Thunderhead. If you have not read them then please do so so you can join me in petitioning for the third book to just come out already! This YA book begins where the first left off and fills the pages with characters known and new and I just loved the pace. I also enjoyed that this book was less about killing and more about living. You can read my full review of this book here.

I finally finish The Gunslinger by Stephen King. It was extremely weird and all I know for sure is that there is Roland (The Gunslinger), the Man in Black (bad guy), and Jake (real boy). There is also a Dark Tower which is the nexus of time and space and…did I mention that this book was weird? Still, I look forward to reading the next one. I don’t know that I loved it, but even Stephen King has said this one was not written well and so I reserve judgement until I have read a few more.

Late last night while driving through the blinding snow I was so pleased to be forced to take my time so I could relish the last few minutes of Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore. This audiobook was far superior to anything I thought it would be and the review will be up either later today or tomorrow. Loved it!

What am I Currently Reading?

I am about 100 pages into the fun-to-read Springfield Confidential. I have just started all the other books. I am literally on page 4 in all of them. Un Lun Dun by China Mieville, Before Tomorrowland come from my own shelves and In Praise of Wasting Time I grabbed from a recent run to the library.

What Will I Read Next

The two books I am certain I will read next are Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,…And Then You Die of Dysentery. I have vowed to read the whole Harry Potter collection on my 2019 Goals and one of my favorite new blogs, The Perks of Being Noura, has a fantastic read-a-long planned! I will be late finishing the second book but I hope to read #1 and #2 in February and find myself all caught up.

I also found …And Then You Die at the library and I will always grab anything related to The Oregon Trail (game, of course). It’s a life-long obsession.

I also have these three audiobooks cued cued up and ready to go and I am not sure which one will strike my fancy this week. If anyone has any advice, let me know!

You vouching for it is one of the reasons I am willing to continue. That first book was good (I mean, Stephen King after all) but it was so weird. I’m going to try physical book vs audiobook for volume 2.

OH MY GOSH Thunderhead is sooo good and I can’t wait for the next book to come out but there still is no cover or release date so I think it is going to be a bit of a wait. Also there are so many great books on this post! you seem to be having a great reading time! I really want to read the Dark Towers series but I’ve got a few other King books to read first.

I keep hearing so much about Scythe and Thunderhead that I may just have to read them! I don’t think that I’d dislike them, but they aren’t my typical reads. I love that you’re going to read Harry Potter! I’m going to be reading Sorcerer’s Stone soon with my almost 9 year old daughter and am hoping she loves it as much as I do! Enjoy! 🙂

I hope she does as well. I have to warn you, I have recommended it to kids and under Harry finds his way to Hogwarts it can be a little boring. Don’t give up! And good luck not crying when Neville gets that last point. Scythe and Thunderhead were not my usual picks either but I really enjoyed them. I like to read ahead of the kids I work with so I am ready with recommendations and these were well written and almost poignant about how death’s presence affects the living.

Oh, I’ve every book except the last one at least 7 times, lol. I love them! I read each of the books when they were 1st published, then reread each one before the next was published, and I have I have two older boys, well they are 21 and 19, and read the series with them. My only worry with her is she gets scared easily, so I don’t want any of it to freak her out. I don’t think she really will with book 1 but as the series goes on, that’s a big concern, so I’ll probably hold off reading them with her until she gets a little older. We’ve read The Lion, the Witch, and The Wardrobe and she loved that, so I think (fingers crossed) she will this too. I’m homeschooling her for 3rd grade, and she’s reading at a 6th almost 7th grade level, so it’s hard sometimes to find her books that academically challenge her without being inappropriate for an 8 year old. There’s just so many things I don’t want her exposed to since you’re only 8 once, so I’m pretty careful about what she reads. She ended up loving Ivan though, we both did, although I bawled my eyes out, and she told me I was a big baby, haha! I’ll have to check them out then. They sound like something my 19 yr old would like; he’s a big reader too.

Ivan make me cry every time!!!! I applaud your approach to selecting her reading – childhood is too fleeting isn’t it? Do you have any suggestions for getting kids through the 5th book? Loads of my kids struggle with that one.

I think I would cry every time too! I’m a crier though. Thank you and yes, it is! I was reading adult books at her age and wonder now what my mom was thinking (or not thinking!). I read Gone With the Wind when I was 10, and I don’t think that I would want her to read that at 10-I love that book, but Scarlett is not exactly the female role model I have in mind and some of those scenes even though not explicit have sexuality implied that I don’t want a 10 year old knowing about. Really? It is very long and I can see that some parts would be tedious to read. I’ll have to think of some suggestions and get back to you since I’ve only read it with my 2 boys. I used to have the same issue when I was teaching British Lit trying to get 160 students or more to read Milton’s Paradise Lost…now this semester it was when I said we’re reading Frankenstein, lol. I think sometimes you just can’t win!